


Sidecar

by starsandgraces



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: Academy Era, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-22
Updated: 2011-03-22
Packaged: 2017-10-17 05:09:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/173232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starsandgraces/pseuds/starsandgraces
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leonard <i>will not</i> get on the back of that motorbike. Jim has a solution.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sidecar

**Author's Note:**

> Written for (locked comm) [jim_and_bones](http://community.livejournal.com/jim_and_bones/)' St. Patrick's Day "Drinks" challenge.

"No."

"Come _on_ , Bones; it's not going to kill you." Jim crosses his arms and cocks one hip slightly, his expression somewhere between perplexed and amused. Then he uncrosses his arms again and gently pats the leather of the motorbike's seat. "Nice bike."

Leonard rolls his eyes, thoroughly drained of any confidence he ever had in Jim. " _No_ ," he repeats firmly. "I've given you the lecture about how many different ways a motorbike can kill you I don't even _know_ how many times now. I don't have any intention of getting on the damn thing myself. San Francisco has plenty of public transport. I can take that to the library."

"You're extra cheerful today, aren't you?" Jim shrugs and gives up, swinging his leg over the seat of the bike and kicking the stand up. "I'll see you at the library later. Whenever you get there." He pulls on his helmet—something Leonard has finally managed to drum into him after months of trying—and starts the engine, lifting his feet neatly off the ground as the bike roars off.

Leonard sighs and goes to catch the shuttle bus into town.

***

About a week later, Jim appears in their dorm room holding two helmets.

"Before you say no," he says hastily, as Leonard opens his mouth to say exactly that, "I'm not going to ask you to sit on the back of the bike."

"Then why do you have two helmets?" Leonard asks. He closes his backpack and slings it over his shoulder.

"You're going to have to come out and see."

"I don't have time for this, Jim. I need to take the shuttle to the off-campus library and if I don't leave now, I won't have enough time there to study before it closes."

"Bones, when have I ever led you astray?"

Leonard can think of at least seven separate incidents—including the now-infamous underwear fiasco—but it's clear to him that Jim isn't going to take no for an answer. Once he has an idea in his head, he can be even more stubborn than Leonard.

"Fine."

Jim leads him down the stairs and out the front door of the dorm. Whatever Leonard had been expecting, it wasn't what he finds in front of him. Jim's motorbike has a sidecar. Leonard is pretty sure it didn't have a sidecar the last time he saw it, which means Jim has done this for him. He doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. They stand side by side, looking at the contraption.

"This is going to look ridiculous," Leonard mutters.

"It already looks ridiculous," Jim says mournfully. Then he glances across at Leonard and adds, "Oh, you mean _you_."

Thusly comforted, Leonard puts on the helmet and climbs awkwardly into the sidecar, hunching down with his backpack on the floor. It's more comfortable than he expected. Unfortunately, it's also _really_ small and his knees dig painfully into the rim after about three seconds. Fleetingly, he wishes he'd thrown up on Jim in the shuttle. Maybe if he had, he wouldn't be here now.

Leonard's only consolation is the fact that with a helmet on, no one can recognise him. Which is definitely a good thing; he feels like a particularly inept sidekick in a children's vid, and the last thing he wants is to be connected with this spectacle.

And then a more pressing concern rears its head. Leonard can _feel_ the connection between the sidecar and the motorbike rattling and bumping as they speed along the road, and he's pretty sure this is the closest he's come to aviophobia while in a vehicle that couldn't fly. He grips the rim of the sidecar until his knuckles turn white.

It takes another couple of minutes before Leonard realises the extent of the connection's shakiness. It's then that he notices that it seems to be getting worse by the second, and judging by the way Jim's speeding up ever so slightly, it looks like he's noticed as well. The extra speed doesn't help matters.

When they pull up outside the library—and not a moment too soon, either—Leonard almost launches himself out of the sidecar, pulling at the strap on the helmet to free himself entirely from the whole situation.

"I appreciate the sacrifice you made for me," he says to Jim, who is in the process of removing his own helmet, "but you're going to take that thing off, aren't you?"

Jim runs his fingers through his hair, looking slightly wild about the eyes. "That's right. And never speak of this again."


End file.
